If a fraction $f_{\rm dcdm}$ of the Dark Matter decays into invisible and massless particles (so-called "dark radiation") with the decay rate (or inverse lifetime) $Γ_{\rm dcdm}$, such decay will leave distinctive imprints on cosmological observables. With a full consideration of the Boltzmann hierarchy, we calculate the decay-induced impacts not only on the CMB but also on the redshift distortion and the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, while providing detailed physical interpretations based on evaluating the evolution of gravitational potential. By using the current cosmological data with a combination of Planck 2015, Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and redshift distortion measurements which can improve the constraints, we update the $1σ$ bound on the fraction of decaying DM from $f_{\rm dcdm}\lesssim5.26\%$ to $f_{\rm dcdm}\lesssim2.73\%$ for the short-lived DM (assuming $Γ_{\rm dcdm}/H_0\gtrsim10^4$). However, no constraints are improved from RSD data ($f_{\rm dcdm}\lesssim0.94\%$) for the long-lived DM (i.e., $Γ_{\rm dcdm}/H_0\lesssim10^4$). We also find the fractional DM decay can only slightly reduce the $H_0$ and $σ_8$ tensions, which is consistent with other previous works. Furthermore, our calculations show that the kSZ effect in future would provide a further constraining power on the decaying DM.
A new class of inflationary attractors characterized by a strongly non-geodesic motion has been discovered and explored in the past few years. I describe how they naturally arise in negatively curved field space, allowing to inflate on potentials that are steep in Planck units, albeit without alleviating the ever-present naturalness issue of inflation. In these scenarios, fluctuations often experience a transient tachyonic instability, which can be described by a single-field effective field theory with an imaginary speed of sound. Independently of the precise ultraviolet origin of the latter,…
In the framework of effective field theories with prominent helicity-0 and helicity-1 fields coupled to each other via a dimension-3 operator, we study the dynamics of inflation driven by the helicity-0 mode, with a given potential energy, as well as the evolution of cosmological perturbations, influenced by the presence of a mixing term between both helicities. In this scenario, the temporal component of the helicity-1 mode is an auxiliary field and can be integrated out in terms of the time derivative of the helicity-0 mode, so that the background dynamics effectively reduces to that in sing…
The discovery of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes has generated considerable interest in examining whether these black holes could have a primordial origin. If a significant number of black holes have to be produced in the early universe, the primordial scalar power spectrum should have an enhanced amplitude on small scales, when compared to the COBE normalized values on the larger scales that is strongly constrained by the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. In the inflationary scenario driven by a single, canonical scalar field, such power spectra can be achie…
In the presence of the primordial magnetic field, initial vector (vorticity) perturbations produce cosmological Alfven waves and leave imprints on cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropy. We have investigated imprints of cosmological Alfven waves in CMB anisotropy. For data constraints, we have used the power spectrum of the recent CMB observations, and correlations estimated from WMAP Internal Linear Combination (ILC) maps. Our analysis shows 3 sigma evidence of cosmological Alfven waves. Using the 3 sigma limit from our analysis and the Alfven velocity limit…
We investigate the imprint of dark energy on the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) angular power spectrum on scales of $\ell=1000$ to $10000$, and find that the kSZ signal is sensitive to the dark energy parameter. For example, varying the constant $w$ by 20\% around $w=-1$ results in a $\gtrsim10\%$ change on the kSZ spectrum; changing the dark energy dynamics parametrized by $w_a$ by $\pm0.5$, a 30\% change on the kSZ spectrum is expected. We discuss the observational aspects and develop a fitting formula for the kSZ power spectrum. Finally, we discuss how the precise modeling of the post-rei…
We propose a phenomenological model for the early universe where there is a smooth transition between an early "quintessence" phase and a radiation dominated era. The matter content is modelled by an appropriately modified Chaplygin gas for the early universe. We constrain the model observationally by mapping the primordial power spectrum of the scalar perturbations to the latest data of WMAP7. We compute as well the spectrum of the primordial gravitational waves as would be measured today. We show that the high frequencies region of the spectrum depends on the free parameter of the model and …
Dynamical Dark Energy Imprints in the Lyman-Alpha Forest
University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca（米兰比可卡大学）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；University of Pittsburgh（匹兹堡大学）；Oak Ridge National Laboratory（橡树岭国家实验室）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）
The standard cosmological paradigm narrates a reassuring story of a universe currently dominated by an enigmatic dark energy component. Disquietingly, its universal explaining power has recently been challenged by, above all, the $\sim4σ$ tension in the values of the Hubble constant. Another, less studied anomaly is the repeated observation of integrated Sachs-Wolfe imprints $\sim5\times$ stronger than expected in the $Λ$CDM model from R>100 $Mpc/h$ super-structures. Here we show that the inhomogeneous AvERA model of emerging curvature is capable of telling a plausible albeit radically differe…
Imprint of swampland-inspired coupled early dark energy
School of Fundamental Physics and Mathematical Sciences, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS（杭州高等研究院基础物理与数学科学学院）；School of Physics Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）；International Center for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific（亚太理论物理中心）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）
基于沼泽地距离猜想，利用条件归一化流网络对高维参数空间采样，联合分析多项数据，研究暗物质与早期暗能量分数耦合的宇宙学含义，发现 EDE 势构造会改变对晚期暗能量的宇宙学约束。
Dark energy interacting with dark matter is a promising model to solve the cosmic coincidence problem. We study the signature of such interaction on large scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies. Based on the detail analysis in perturbation equations of dark energy and dark matter when they are in interaction, we find that the large scale CMB, especially the late Integrated Sachs Wolfe effect, is a useful tool to measure the coupling between dark sectors. We also discuss the possibility to detect the coupling by cross-correlating CMB maps with tracers of the large scal…
We study the imprint of Dark Energy on the density profile of Dark Matter halos using a set of high-resolution large volume cosmological N-body simulations from the Dark Energy Universe Simulation Series (DEUSS). We first focus on the analysis of the goodness-of-fit of the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile which we find to vary with halo mass and redshift. We also find that the fraction of halos ill-fitted by NFW varies with cosmology, thus indicating that the mass assembly of halos with perturbed density profiles carries a characteristic signature of Dark Energy. To access this information in…
We investigate the characteristic modifications in the evolving cosmological perturbations when dark energy interacts with dust-like matter, causing the latter's background energy density fall off with time faster than usual. Focusing in particular to the late-time cosmic evolution, we show that such an interaction (of a specific form, arising naturally in a scalar-tensor formulation, or a wide range of modified gravity equivalents thereof), can have a rather significant effect on the perturbative spectrum, than on the background configuration which is not expected to get distorted much from $…
We investigate cosmological constraints on K-mouflage models of modified gravity. We consider two scenarios: one where the background evolution is free to deviate from $Λ$CDM (K-mouflage) and another one which reproduces a $Λ$CDM expansion (K-mimic), implementing both of them into the EFTCAMB code. We discuss the main observational signatures of these models and we compare their cosmological predictions to different datasets, including CMB, CMB lensing, SNIa and different galaxy catalogues. We argue about the possibility of relieving the $H_0$ and weak lensing tensions within these models, fin…
Cosmology of Inelastic Self-Interacting Dark Matter: Linear Evolution and Observational Constraints
Key Laboratory of Dark Matter and Space Astronomy, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院紫金山天文台暗物质与空间天文重点实验室）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学天文与空间科学学院）；Department of Strategic and Advanced Interdisciplinary Research, Pengcheng Laboratory（鹏城实验室战略与先进交叉研究部）
Varying Gravity from a Modified Fractional Model: Observational Constraints and Slow-Fast Dynamics
Chiang Mai University（清迈大学）；CESNET；Universidad Católica del Norte（北方天主教大学）；North-West University（西北大学）；Durban University of Technology（德班理工大学）；Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile（智利天主教 Pontificia 大学）
We look for and place observational constraints on the imprint of ultralight dark matter (ULDM) soliton cores in rotation-dominated galaxies. Extending previous analyses, we find a conservative constraint which disfavors the soliton-host halo relation found in some numerical simulations over a broad range in the ULDM particle mass $m$. Combining the observational constraints with theoretical arguments for the efficiency of soliton formation via gravitational dynamical relaxation, and assuming that the soliton-halo relation is correct, our results disfavor ULDM from comprising 100\% of the tota…
Many physical theories beyond the Standard Model predict time variations of basic physics parameters. Direct measurement of the time variations of these parameters is very difficult or impossible to achieve. By contrast, measurements of fundamental constants are relatively easy to achieve, both in the laboratory and by astronomical spectra of atoms and molecules in the early universe. In this work measurements of the proton to electron mass ratio $μ$ and the fine structure constant $α$ are combined to place mildly model dependent limits on the fractional variation of the Quantum Chromodynamic …
Sensitivity toward dark matter annihilation imprints on 21-cm signal with SKA-Low: A convolutional neural network approach
Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (HIAS-UCAS)（中国科学院大学杭州高等研究院）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；International Centre for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific (ICTP-AP)（亚太理论物理中心）；Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University（岐阜女子大学）；Institute for Advanced Research, and Kobayashi Maskawa Institute, Nagoya University（名古屋大学先进研究院及小林–益川研究所）
This paper presents a systematic and accurate treatment of the evolution of cosmological perturbations in self-interacting dark matter models, for particles which decoupled from the primordial plasma while relativistic. We provide a numerical implementation of the Boltzmann hierarchies developed in a previous paper [JCAP, 09 (2020) 041] in a publicly available Boltzmann code and show how it can be applied to realistic DM candidates such as sterile neutrinos either under resonant or non-resonant production mechanisms, and for different field mediators. At difference with traditional fluid appro…
We use FIRAS and Planck 2015 data to place observational bounds on inflationary scenarios in multi-fractional spacetimes with $q$-derivatives. While a power-law expansion in the geometric time coordinate is subject to the usual constraints from the tensor-to-scalar ratio, model-independent best fits of the black-body and scalar spectra yield upper limits on the free parameters of the multi-fractal measure of the theory. When the measure describing the fractal spacetime geometry is non-oscillating, information on the CMB black-body spectrum places constraints on the theory independent from but …
In a purely cold dark matter universe, the initial matter power spectrum and its subsequent gravitational growth contain no special mass- or time-scales, and so neither do the emergent population statistics of internal dark matter (DM) halo properties. Using 1.5 million halos from three IllustrisTNG realizations of a LambdaCDM universe, we show that galaxy formation physics drives non-monotonic features ("wiggles") into DM property statistics across six decades in halo mass, from dwarf galaxies to galaxy clusters. We characterize these features by extracting the halo mass-dependent statistics …
We study the imprints of massive particles with spin on cosmological correlators. Using the framework of the effective field theory of inflation, we classify the couplings of these particles to the Goldstone boson of broken time translations and the graviton. We show that it is possible to generate observable non-Gaussianity within the regime of validity of the effective theory, as long as the masses of the particles are close to the Hubble scale and their interactions break the approximate conformal symmetry of the inflationary background. We derive explicit shape functions for the scalar and…
We consider the possibility that current hints of spatial variations of the fine structure constant at high redshift, based on VLT/UVES and Keck/HIRES observations, could be caused by a biased domain wall network described by a scalar field non-minimally coupled to the electromagnetic field. We show that in order to be responsible for the reported spatial variations of the fine structure constant, the fractional contribution of the domain wall network to the energy density of the Universe should be tightly constrained within the range $10^{-10} < Ω_{w0} < 10^{-5}$. We also show that the domain…
In all inflationary scenarios of primordial black holes (PBH) formation, amplified scalar perturbations inevitably accompany an induced stochastic gravitational waves background (ISGWB) at smaller scales. In this paper, we study the ISGWB originating from the inflationary model, introduced in our previous paper [1] wherein PBHs can be produced with a nearly monochromatic mass fraction in the asteroid mass window accounting for the total dark matter in the universe. We numerically calculate the ISGWB in our scenario for frequencies ranging from nanoHz to KHz that covers the observational scales…
The characteristic prediction of the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model of cosmological structure formation is that the Universe should contain a wealth of small-scale structure -- low-mass dark matter haloes and subhaloes. However, galaxy formation is inefficient in their shallow potential wells and so we expect these low-mass haloes and subhaloes to be dark. Can we tell the difference between a Universe in which low-mass haloes are present but dark and one in which they never formed, thereby providing a robust test of the CDM model? We address this question using cosmological simulations to examin…
Early-type galaxies (ETGs) are observed to be more compact, on average, at $z \gtrsim 2$ than at $z\simeq 0$, at fixed stellar mass. Recent observational works suggest that such size evolution could reflect the similar evolution of the host dark matter halo density as a function of the time of galaxy quenching. We explore this hypothesis by studying the distribution of halo central velocity dispersion ($σ_0$) and half-mass radius ($r_{\rm h}$) as functions of halo mass $M$ and redshift $z$, in a cosmological $Λ$-CDM $N$-body simulation. In the range $0\lesssim z\lesssim 2.5$, we find $σ_0\prop…
